Carl Johnson

Carl "CJ" Johnson (1968-) was an African-American gangster and the second-in-command of the Grove Street Families gang under his brother, Sweet Johnson. CJ left for New York City for five years after the death of his brother Brian in 1987, but he returned home in 1992 for his mother's funeral. He returned to a Los Angeles that was plagued by gang violence and drug use, and Johnson returned to the gang life to fight against the rival Ballas and Vagos gangs and the corrupt C.R.A.S.H. police force. His quest to save his family took him to the rural areas north of Los Angeles to San Francisco and even to Las Vegas and rural Nevada, and he would eventually have his revenge against his mother's killers Big Smoke and Frank Tenpenny in April 1992 during the Los Angeles Riots, ensuring that Grove Street was the most powerful gang in the city, and that nobody could mess with his family anymore.

Early life
Carl Johnson was born in Compton, California in 1968 to Beverly Johnson and an unknown father. He was the brother of Sean "Sweet" Johnson, Kendl Johnson, and Brian Johnson, and Carl and his brothers became the leaders of the Grove Street Families set of The Families gang during the 1980s. In 1987, Brian was killed by the Ballas gang, and Carl felt that he was responsible, thinking that he could have prevented his death. Carl decided to miss out on Brian's funeral and move to New York City, where he worked as a car thief for Joey Leone and the American Mafia. Johnson worked for him for five years, but he eventually grew homesick. In 1992, he decided to return home, and he packed his bags and left for JFK International Airport. It was there that his brother Sweet gave him a call to let him know that his mother had been killed, and CJ hurried home.

First encounter with C.R.A.S.H.
Johnson left the airport in a taxi with just one bag and a wad of cash, and he asked the driver to take him to Grove Street in Compton. However, a squad car pulled the taxi over, and corrupt C.R.A.S.H. officer Frank Tenpenny asked for Johnson to leave the car with his hands in the air. Johnson's cash was taken away by Tenpenny, who claimed that it was drug money, and he had Eddie Pulaski shove him into the squad car without giving him his travel bag. Johnson was then presented with a gun which Tenpenny claimed that Johnson had used to kill police officer Ralph Pendelbury ten minutes earlier, although Johnson had not even left his plane at that time. Tenpenny told Carl that he would be watching him, and he decided to use Johnson as a pawn for his own designs.

Beverly Johnson's funeral
Johnson returned to his house on Grove Street after fleeing on a bicycle through Ballas turf after his release from the squad car, and he felt the weight of his mother's death upon returning to the Johnson House. He was then greeted by OG Big Smoke, who was wielding a baseball bat in case a burglar had entered the house. Big Smoke greeted him and told him that he should get in the car to meet his siblings at their mother's funeral, and Johnson met Sweet, Kendl, and Ryder Wilson there. Kendl was warm with him, but Sweet was hostile, saying that Carl had again skipped a family member's funeral. The reunion was interrupted when Ballas cars moved in for a drive-by, and the gangsters fled on bicycles through the center of the city and down to Grove Street, their home turf.

Return to "the Game"
Upon returning home, Carl received phone calls from Sweet and officer Hernandez, with Sweet warning him of the Seville Boulevard Families and Temple Drive Families' betrayals, while Hernandez warned him not to leave Los Angeles, for law enforcement would come down on him if he did. Carl decided to be re-initiated into the gang, taking part in vandalism with spray cans, robbing a pizza restaurant, a drive-by shooting, an attack on a crack den, the robbery of Colonel Fuehrberger's house, a raid on a National Guard depot, and other activities. Carl gradually regained the respect of his felow gangsters, and he helped OG Loc with his aspirations in becoming a rapper while also taking over turf from rival gangs. The return of Grove Street was hampered by an ambush at the Four Level Interchange by the Ballas, however, as Sweet was attacked by Ballas while Carl found Big Smoke and the C.R.A.S.H. officers talking near the green Sabre car that was used in the drive-by that killed Beverly Johnson. Carl headed to warn Sweet, but the two of them got involved in a firefight with the Ballas, ending with Sweet being wounded and arrested and Carl being kidnapped by C.R.A.S.H..